The most beautiful poetry/prayer, we learnt in school. Since I remember it one completely and this is an apt time, here goes
Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Were the world has not been broken up, into fragments by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out, from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving, stretches its arms, towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason, has not losts its way, into the deary desert of dead habit
Where the mind is lead forward by you, into ever widening thought n action
Into that Heaven of freedom, my Father, let my Country arise
Rabindranath Tagore
Saturday, August 14, 2010
the ones I will not punch
for the uninitiated, please refer to the earlier 2 posts in the topic
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=339305695976
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=400257920976
Current times are very frustrating. There are so many one wants to punch real hard in the face. However, this being Ramadan, the month of abstinence, patience and most importantly forgiveness, I will speak about the one I really want to, but will not punch in the face hard
1. Our hot favourite, Suresh Kalmadi, the most famous beard on this side of the Suez... not for his recent commonwealth misadventures, no sir, nor for his 14 years of ruining the IOA... but for his wonderful organisation Sai Service, that has serviced my car well for almost 4 years now. Just for that Mr Kalmadi, you are spared a punch.
2. Amar Singh, gaali ka kutta, na ghar ka na ghat ka, from being king maker in UP to a no takers politician suddenly realising his thakur roots, I pity his sad life, and hence will not punch him.
3. Arnab Goswami: Yes yes, he is that screeching lady in the 9 pm news that my father loves watching, much to mine and moms irritation. Yes, he has taken English news to the depths of Hindi news. Yes he has made a non entity like Suhel Seth into an expert of the highest order. However, I forgive him, since he is from Assam and i have found most people from the North East of a very pleasant disposition. So for his region, he survives.
4. Mamta Bannerjee: Why give her yet another opportunity to blame the left. I dont like those guys enough. Besides I am scared that her new found maoist friends may come after me. Momtadi, you may continue to ruin the railways and the social fabric of Bengal with your single point obsession of becoming the CM, I will not punch you.
5. Mayawati: Not for her spineless politics, not for all her statues, but for the fact that if I punch her, it may get constituted as atrocity against backward caste and violence against women (while she may be a disgrace to both)... thence
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=339305695976
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=400257920976
Current times are very frustrating. There are so many one wants to punch real hard in the face. However, this being Ramadan, the month of abstinence, patience and most importantly forgiveness, I will speak about the one I really want to, but will not punch in the face hard
1. Our hot favourite, Suresh Kalmadi, the most famous beard on this side of the Suez... not for his recent commonwealth misadventures, no sir, nor for his 14 years of ruining the IOA... but for his wonderful organisation Sai Service, that has serviced my car well for almost 4 years now. Just for that Mr Kalmadi, you are spared a punch.
2. Amar Singh, gaali ka kutta, na ghar ka na ghat ka, from being king maker in UP to a no takers politician suddenly realising his thakur roots, I pity his sad life, and hence will not punch him.
3. Arnab Goswami: Yes yes, he is that screeching lady in the 9 pm news that my father loves watching, much to mine and moms irritation. Yes, he has taken English news to the depths of Hindi news. Yes he has made a non entity like Suhel Seth into an expert of the highest order. However, I forgive him, since he is from Assam and i have found most people from the North East of a very pleasant disposition. So for his region, he survives.
4. Mamta Bannerjee: Why give her yet another opportunity to blame the left. I dont like those guys enough. Besides I am scared that her new found maoist friends may come after me. Momtadi, you may continue to ruin the railways and the social fabric of Bengal with your single point obsession of becoming the CM, I will not punch you.
5. Mayawati: Not for her spineless politics, not for all her statues, but for the fact that if I punch her, it may get constituted as atrocity against backward caste and violence against women (while she may be a disgrace to both)... thence
Sunday, August 1, 2010
of reunions and social networking
Recently, there was one more failed attempt at doing a reunion of my engineering class. Having attempted it earlier, I was very cynical. However, I was still looking forward to it happening and had planned my day accordingly. Alas this one didn't take off. Only 5-6 people were finally turning up. Its a very standard affair with these engineering reunions. The junta in the states will always responds, maybe cos they really miss catching up with classmates or since they have the most genuine excuse. Then it is the regular 4-5 punters who turn up every time. Rest dont bother.
22nd may was the Mumbai leg of Anusmaran, the annual reunion of IIMB. Its been 5 years since we left campus and exactly 5 of the batch of 200 (atleast 50 are in town) turned up to celebrate the occasion. Clearly recession is over... last year we had a lot of networkers turning up! As one good friend of mine, who is a keen networker and quite social, justified to me in the morning, 'Jin se contact rakna hai, ho jata hai. Baki se milne me no enthu'
I quite enjoy reunions. Its a great joy for me to bump into long lost friends at reunions and catch up on their life. Have attended every one of those held of my Engg and MBA college. Just missed a recent school reunion.
Hence, it quite disappoints me when well planned unions fail to get a turn out. Also makes me wonder why and what can be done to turn this around.
Clearly the internet and Social networing have played their part. I had lost touch with all but 2 classmates from school. Now, most are on my friend list and we even have a community of our own. Atleast 10 wished me on my birthday recently. Have caught some movies with a few off late.
So while social networking may have played its part in connecting long lost friends, it may also be contributing to the reduced interest in meeting
However, i feel that the most important factor is the bandwagon effect. (This is one of the rare terms of Kotler that I actually internalised). Most people want to be a part of a fun, successful event. They ask their cool friends. Each one is waiting for someone else they like to say he is going. Chicken n egg, and in the end, no one goes.
Bandwagon is also responsible for the rise and fall of social networking. In 2005, Orkut was cool (in India). By 2007, facebook came in. Today, its twitter. I remember a friend of mine telling me, orkut is so lame, facebook is cool. Of late, people say the same of fb and twitter (which really is nothing much than 1 feature of fb, if u ask me). As someone who has active friends in all 3 places, let me tell u that I still know a lot of very cool people (some of my coolest trek friends) who are very active on orkut and dislike facebook. Similar with twitter. Clearly, it is not interface or functionality. It is pure and simple bandwagon. I will be active where people bother to acknowledge my activity. People who I want to network with have to be there. That's that! Interface is just an excuse.
Today Twitter is the rage, tomorrow it would be lame. Since, I have always been about a year late on these phenomenons, I might begin to appreciate it then. Anyway, the point here is not to say which is better, it is to say that all parameters of cool and lame are just based on which people we know are active where.
So in summary, its not social networking that is killing reunions, but bandwagon effect that is determining the success of both! Now you know, doesn't make an earth shattering difference to your life, carry on doing what you were, before you read this!
22nd may was the Mumbai leg of Anusmaran, the annual reunion of IIMB. Its been 5 years since we left campus and exactly 5 of the batch of 200 (atleast 50 are in town) turned up to celebrate the occasion. Clearly recession is over... last year we had a lot of networkers turning up! As one good friend of mine, who is a keen networker and quite social, justified to me in the morning, 'Jin se contact rakna hai, ho jata hai. Baki se milne me no enthu'
I quite enjoy reunions. Its a great joy for me to bump into long lost friends at reunions and catch up on their life. Have attended every one of those held of my Engg and MBA college. Just missed a recent school reunion.
Hence, it quite disappoints me when well planned unions fail to get a turn out. Also makes me wonder why and what can be done to turn this around.
Clearly the internet and Social networing have played their part. I had lost touch with all but 2 classmates from school. Now, most are on my friend list and we even have a community of our own. Atleast 10 wished me on my birthday recently. Have caught some movies with a few off late.
So while social networking may have played its part in connecting long lost friends, it may also be contributing to the reduced interest in meeting
However, i feel that the most important factor is the bandwagon effect. (This is one of the rare terms of Kotler that I actually internalised). Most people want to be a part of a fun, successful event. They ask their cool friends. Each one is waiting for someone else they like to say he is going. Chicken n egg, and in the end, no one goes.
Bandwagon is also responsible for the rise and fall of social networking. In 2005, Orkut was cool (in India). By 2007, facebook came in. Today, its twitter. I remember a friend of mine telling me, orkut is so lame, facebook is cool. Of late, people say the same of fb and twitter (which really is nothing much than 1 feature of fb, if u ask me). As someone who has active friends in all 3 places, let me tell u that I still know a lot of very cool people (some of my coolest trek friends) who are very active on orkut and dislike facebook. Similar with twitter. Clearly, it is not interface or functionality. It is pure and simple bandwagon. I will be active where people bother to acknowledge my activity. People who I want to network with have to be there. That's that! Interface is just an excuse.
Today Twitter is the rage, tomorrow it would be lame. Since, I have always been about a year late on these phenomenons, I might begin to appreciate it then. Anyway, the point here is not to say which is better, it is to say that all parameters of cool and lame are just based on which people we know are active where.
So in summary, its not social networking that is killing reunions, but bandwagon effect that is determining the success of both! Now you know, doesn't make an earth shattering difference to your life, carry on doing what you were, before you read this!
Friday, July 30, 2010
the avchitgad misadventure
After 2 earlier failed attempts, we finally planned to set of to Avchitgad on Saturday 24th July. It was a group of 7. Dhruwin was most keen and the first to confirm. There was a small period of time when pratik wasn't sure of joining and I was shuddering at the though of taking my Alto, instead of his Verna. Anyway all that worked out and the 7 member group was locked in by Thursday night.
Avchitgad is a fort in Roha taluka off NH17. It is a simple trek and we planned to climb from Meda village. Having planned the trek earlier, albeit as just an initial plan, and due to a very hectic week in office, I couldn't research much. However, I managed to get the necessary maps to the base village in place. Having heard that this is a simple trek, and having a high energy group, I didn't bother reading up on the trek route etc (assuming others would). Infact, so confident was I of the trek that I even planned a 2nd trek for the day if this one finished on schedule.
By Friday, I had arranged food in the base village (Meda) and we were all set. Or so it seemed. It had poured the previous day and Konkan was in disarray. Kundali river had overflowed and NH17 was shut for 3 hours. The train schedule was in a mess. Dipak pinged me on friday to check if I was taking a train. Anyway, the only effect of the Thursday chaos we saw were some major pot holes on NH17, some really swelled up rivers, heavy rainfall and thankfully, lesser traffic. We started almost on time, despite Prachi's best efforts. Mayank was the only person in the group who hadn't trekked in a while and so it was only his fitness I was worried about.
Adventure began immediately on starting when I realised I had forgotten the maps back home. Since it was a simple route, and we had Pratik's wonderful GPS console, we carried on and found Medha village without to much hassle. We took the Nagothane exit and then the Roha-Murud road. For this we had to cross an old dilapidated single way bridge over a swelling river and I made a mental note to avoid this route on the way back. The Roha-Murud road is a wonderful drive through a ghat we were soon in a mini Malshej with many beautiful small waterfalls around us. Finally we passed a waterfall we couldn't resist and stopped to check it out.
In Meda village, we met our hosts the Chandanes, told them to keep food ready by 2 and then parked and set off. We were advised to take a local along but decided otherwise, a decision I cribbed about many times during the day. The thing about trekking with 6 people who know its a pilot is that all are in a high state of excitement. Every local is asked directions and each member individually. Most interesting is Pratik, he is most keen to know how much time will we take to reach and would even ask this question to a tree if he didnt get find any new person to ask every 5 mins (Bart Simpson anyone). Anyway, after one local was piled on 2 times by groups of 3, we set off on what seemed like a narrow jungle path. The summary input was to climb up to the pass and then turn right towards the fort (a nobrainer considering the straight path was a descent into another village). After the initial hiccups, we were on course and soon hit the pass and turned right. We were clearly on the right track and also saw some arrows. By now, it was pouring cats and dogs but that apart, we had no other qualms.
However, soon the problems began. The road kept got flat and kept going on straight and the fort was clearly on our right a bit higher up. It seemed like we were circumnavigating the fort from the outside. We clearly had to turn right somewhere and were getting impatient at not getting a proper route. We decided to turn back and look for a turn, now to our left. Finally we found some weak routes and in our keenness to reach up climb one which looked most promising. After 5 minutes of what Dhruwin describes as "andha dhundi climbing" (climb towards ur destination, irrespective of there being a path) we reached a clearing and finally saw the fort wall. We had reached a dead end. This wall was built to stop much more nimble footed soldiers from scaling the fort. However, me and Dhruwin still tried to climb with without any success. We were now at our wits end. So near and yet so far. We just could not spot the entrance. There was a thought of camping here for a while and then heading back. Even the Dairy Milk Silk (which is generally reserved for atop or post descent) was removed and finished off. I took out my cell from its multi layer rain protection and called Dipak, since he had done the climb one month earlier. However, since I couldn't explain him my location, he couldn't help. Then I called our hosts, and luckily they figured where we are and gave us the correct advise. We had to continue going on the right of the fort and the entrance would come. From our position, we had to walk through thick bushes to reach the path again. We set off fighting through the thorny bushes. I kept to the back of the group, and soon heard a cry up front, "rasta mil gaya, arrow mil gaya." Soon were were at the entrance of the fort. The 1 hour climb had taken us 3.
It took us an hour to explore the massive fort. We found a lot of water tanks, temples, and finally the went to the spot we had lost hopes at. Despite the inclement weather, some pics were taken.
At about 3 pm, we began descending. Timekeeper Pratik decided that we should be down by 4 pm and no one disagreed. As with the whole trip so far, I sent Dhruwin up front and took the rear. It was going to be a simple descent, we had to just follow the arrows. Or so we thought!!!
Everyone was keen to know where we had lost our way. After all we had encountered arrows enroute and also at the end. Logically we kept descending along the arrow route. For a while we couldn't hit our ascent route. The fleeting though that we might be going the wrong way did occur to me and I also expressed it a couple of time. However, we concluded that we would descend within 50 meters of our starting point. Soon Dipak called to check if all was well. I also got a couple of SMSes. In all this confusion, I kept my cell in the pocket of my wind cheater. By now it was raining real hard (in case of any doubts on how hard, please read the papers of the last 3 days, Konkan is still disrupted and the railway has all but shut down). Mayank was feeling the descent and his knees were in a mess. I was most eager to reach down to end his agony. However, the route was completely different. Finally, we reached a clearing where we could see the hexagonal lake and pointed temple, which we had spotted next to our base village.Only problem was there was also a gushing river next to it. No one remembered the river but again we concluded that it would have sprung up due to all the rain. After all, how many villages have a hexagonal lake and a pointed temple!! Clearly, we had almost reached and the village was just behind the hillock on our left. By now every small altitude change was a big effort for Mayank and for his sake, I was really rooting for the descent to end.
If the river seemed like a small impediment initially, it turned into a major pain later. Our route directly ended into the river and there was nowhere else to go. At this point, there was a sinking feeling that we are lost and the arrows had been a fraud. Thankfully, we could see some villagers about a km away and so this seemed to be the logical route. However, try convincing your mind to cross a raging river when there is no visible path ahead.Here I took the lead and as all were looking, just started walking in. Soon wise sense prevailed and we formed a human chain and crossed. Clearly the river was not deep, but the force of the water was sufficient to drag us downstream.
A big sense of relief hit us after crossing the river as we again saw the arrows. This was clearly the route and we were not very far now. More importantly, it was flat walking from here on and we just had to round the hillock on our left. At 4.15 pm we were almost there. As always, we piled on the first villager we saw and asked directions (just to confirm). However, the lady seemed stunned and told us the village was very far back and to our right. She looked drunk and so we decided to go ahead and ask more people. All seemed to say the same. We concluded that all were drunk! None of us could believe that the village could be at the back and to the right. However, 20 different people cannot give wrong directions. Gradually it emerged that we were about 5-7 kms from Meda. Roha was 3 kms from our location. Some good villagers advised us to walk towards Roha and take a vehicle to Meda. I detected a few of them smirking when we asked directions. But I still couldnt reconcile to the fact that we were this lost. How could we be. By now, I was very pissed. I was clearly responsible for this trek and because of my lack of homework and alertness, we were in trouble. Thats not all, my cell was conked off due to the rain. We couldnt contact our hosts since only I had the number. There was no transportation options visible for miles. Abhishek was hit by a bout of sinus, Prachi was tired. Mayank's knees were a mess. There was no option but to reach Meda and fetch our cars. Also the poor hosts had prepared fod for 7 hungry trekkers. That had to be done justice to. Pratik who had been struggling all through the descent, suddenly became the cheerleader of the group. He pumped us all and decided that himself, dhruwin and I would run (yes run) ahead toward Roha and try and get some transport back, while the rest 4 walked behind. We ran for about a km, again much the amusement of the villagers. Pratik kept stopping at intervals to do his 'how far is it' routine. Finally after some running, brisk walking, give up walking and plenty of timekeeping, we reached Roha. We would have walked about 30 minutes to reach Roha. The trailing group was about a km behind us. Once again it hit me that they only have my number and my cell has conked. My sparking brilliance had overshadowed all proceedings. So I waited at the intersection while Pratik and Dhruwin went ahead to fetch an auto or 2. By the time the trailing group caught up, we had found 2 autos.
All lingering doubts I had on our location were settled. As confirmed later, we had descended on the wrong side of the pass. We were thus in a village on the other side of the fort. We were miserably lost and 7 kms from Meda. I got into my apologetic mode but was quite surprised to see all folks extremely happy. The adventure of getting lost, crossing the river and finding out way had been much more fun than a simple descent. Finally at 5.30 pm we reached Meda and rushed to eat without even changing. The wonderful lady (Mrs Chandane) showed us some sympathy and again reminded us that we had not heeded her advise of taking a local. There is something about Prachi and village ladies. All of them start wanting to adopt her, teach her marathi and make her an ideal home maker. In the last trek, she had made Bhakri with the village lady. Here to she was in the kitchen discussing cost of living etc with her. Abhishek was clearly interested in the food alone.
Food time
I have always been biased towards village food, but that this food was phenomenal was a consensus. Dhruwin who is a vetran of 48 treks was most impressed. He has never eaten in the village. People had cribbed to me initially for arranging veg food, but I believe that was one (rare) wise decision I had made for the day. We had vatana sabzi, tandul roti, gehu roti, varan bhaat, salad and papad. The first time village eaters like Dhruwin and Mayank were stunned to contentment. The rest were just blissfully happy.
After the wonderful meal, we changed into dry clothes, had chai, thanked and paid our hosts profusely (as kudva said, screw the market) and set off. Driving was again a problem. Noone wanted Pratik to drive, as usual. Mayank gave up. Abhishek was looking dead (Sinus and then the subsequent medication). But he bravely decided to drive and I took the other car. All wet shoes n socks were packed into the boot and both car boots would have been smelling for days. While we avoided the rickety bridge on the way back, the pot holes on NH17 were tougher to miss. Night driving on this road after an exhausting trek is no walk in the park. But we managed. I gave up at Panvel and Pratik finally got to drive his car. On the way back, again we messed up as noone still had each others no. Inter car commmunication was a problem. Dhruwin kept us entertained by telling us more stories of his getting lost on treks. Finally it dawned to me that he was the reason and nothing else! We got home by 10 pm. It was an adventure I would not forget for a while. This blog will serve as a reminder when we converted a simple short trek into something memorable, albeit unintentionally.
Learnings for the day
1. Use your brains and do not keep your cell in your pocket during rains.
2. Most villages have a hexagonal lake and pointed temple
3. Dhruwin loves loosing the way, dont keep him in the front
4. Do not hoard on the groups mobile nos, share.
5. Even if its a simple trek, do your homework and stay alert.
6. If you take a right while going up, you must turn left when going down
6. Getting lost is awesome fun.
Avchitgad is a fort in Roha taluka off NH17. It is a simple trek and we planned to climb from Meda village. Having planned the trek earlier, albeit as just an initial plan, and due to a very hectic week in office, I couldn't research much. However, I managed to get the necessary maps to the base village in place. Having heard that this is a simple trek, and having a high energy group, I didn't bother reading up on the trek route etc (assuming others would). Infact, so confident was I of the trek that I even planned a 2nd trek for the day if this one finished on schedule.
By Friday, I had arranged food in the base village (Meda) and we were all set. Or so it seemed. It had poured the previous day and Konkan was in disarray. Kundali river had overflowed and NH17 was shut for 3 hours. The train schedule was in a mess. Dipak pinged me on friday to check if I was taking a train. Anyway, the only effect of the Thursday chaos we saw were some major pot holes on NH17, some really swelled up rivers, heavy rainfall and thankfully, lesser traffic. We started almost on time, despite Prachi's best efforts. Mayank was the only person in the group who hadn't trekked in a while and so it was only his fitness I was worried about.
 |
| swelled up river ... anyone?? |
Adventure began immediately on starting when I realised I had forgotten the maps back home. Since it was a simple route, and we had Pratik's wonderful GPS console, we carried on and found Medha village without to much hassle. We took the Nagothane exit and then the Roha-Murud road. For this we had to cross an old dilapidated single way bridge over a swelling river and I made a mental note to avoid this route on the way back. The Roha-Murud road is a wonderful drive through a ghat we were soon in a mini Malshej with many beautiful small waterfalls around us. Finally we passed a waterfall we couldn't resist and stopped to check it out.
 |
| Checking out the fall |
In Meda village, we met our hosts the Chandanes, told them to keep food ready by 2 and then parked and set off. We were advised to take a local along but decided otherwise, a decision I cribbed about many times during the day. The thing about trekking with 6 people who know its a pilot is that all are in a high state of excitement. Every local is asked directions and each member individually. Most interesting is Pratik, he is most keen to know how much time will we take to reach and would even ask this question to a tree if he didnt get find any new person to ask every 5 mins (Bart Simpson anyone). Anyway, after one local was piled on 2 times by groups of 3, we set off on what seemed like a narrow jungle path. The summary input was to climb up to the pass and then turn right towards the fort (a nobrainer considering the straight path was a descent into another village). After the initial hiccups, we were on course and soon hit the pass and turned right. We were clearly on the right track and also saw some arrows. By now, it was pouring cats and dogs but that apart, we had no other qualms.
However, soon the problems began. The road kept got flat and kept going on straight and the fort was clearly on our right a bit higher up. It seemed like we were circumnavigating the fort from the outside. We clearly had to turn right somewhere and were getting impatient at not getting a proper route. We decided to turn back and look for a turn, now to our left. Finally we found some weak routes and in our keenness to reach up climb one which looked most promising. After 5 minutes of what Dhruwin describes as "andha dhundi climbing" (climb towards ur destination, irrespective of there being a path) we reached a clearing and finally saw the fort wall. We had reached a dead end. This wall was built to stop much more nimble footed soldiers from scaling the fort. However, me and Dhruwin still tried to climb with without any success. We were now at our wits end. So near and yet so far. We just could not spot the entrance. There was a thought of camping here for a while and then heading back. Even the Dairy Milk Silk (which is generally reserved for atop or post descent) was removed and finished off. I took out my cell from its multi layer rain protection and called Dipak, since he had done the climb one month earlier. However, since I couldn't explain him my location, he couldn't help. Then I called our hosts, and luckily they figured where we are and gave us the correct advise. We had to continue going on the right of the fort and the entrance would come. From our position, we had to walk through thick bushes to reach the path again. We set off fighting through the thorny bushes. I kept to the back of the group, and soon heard a cry up front, "rasta mil gaya, arrow mil gaya." Soon were were at the entrance of the fort. The 1 hour climb had taken us 3.
It took us an hour to explore the massive fort. We found a lot of water tanks, temples, and finally the went to the spot we had lost hopes at. Despite the inclement weather, some pics were taken.
 |
| the multicoloured water tanks |
 |
| the gang atop - no idea whats in store ahead |
At about 3 pm, we began descending. Timekeeper Pratik decided that we should be down by 4 pm and no one disagreed. As with the whole trip so far, I sent Dhruwin up front and took the rear. It was going to be a simple descent, we had to just follow the arrows. Or so we thought!!!
Everyone was keen to know where we had lost our way. After all we had encountered arrows enroute and also at the end. Logically we kept descending along the arrow route. For a while we couldn't hit our ascent route. The fleeting though that we might be going the wrong way did occur to me and I also expressed it a couple of time. However, we concluded that we would descend within 50 meters of our starting point. Soon Dipak called to check if all was well. I also got a couple of SMSes. In all this confusion, I kept my cell in the pocket of my wind cheater. By now it was raining real hard (in case of any doubts on how hard, please read the papers of the last 3 days, Konkan is still disrupted and the railway has all but shut down). Mayank was feeling the descent and his knees were in a mess. I was most eager to reach down to end his agony. However, the route was completely different. Finally, we reached a clearing where we could see the hexagonal lake and pointed temple, which we had spotted next to our base village.Only problem was there was also a gushing river next to it. No one remembered the river but again we concluded that it would have sprung up due to all the rain. After all, how many villages have a hexagonal lake and a pointed temple!! Clearly, we had almost reached and the village was just behind the hillock on our left. By now every small altitude change was a big effort for Mayank and for his sake, I was really rooting for the descent to end.
If the river seemed like a small impediment initially, it turned into a major pain later. Our route directly ended into the river and there was nowhere else to go. At this point, there was a sinking feeling that we are lost and the arrows had been a fraud. Thankfully, we could see some villagers about a km away and so this seemed to be the logical route. However, try convincing your mind to cross a raging river when there is no visible path ahead.Here I took the lead and as all were looking, just started walking in. Soon wise sense prevailed and we formed a human chain and crossed. Clearly the river was not deep, but the force of the water was sufficient to drag us downstream.
A big sense of relief hit us after crossing the river as we again saw the arrows. This was clearly the route and we were not very far now. More importantly, it was flat walking from here on and we just had to round the hillock on our left. At 4.15 pm we were almost there. As always, we piled on the first villager we saw and asked directions (just to confirm). However, the lady seemed stunned and told us the village was very far back and to our right. She looked drunk and so we decided to go ahead and ask more people. All seemed to say the same. We concluded that all were drunk! None of us could believe that the village could be at the back and to the right. However, 20 different people cannot give wrong directions. Gradually it emerged that we were about 5-7 kms from Meda. Roha was 3 kms from our location. Some good villagers advised us to walk towards Roha and take a vehicle to Meda. I detected a few of them smirking when we asked directions. But I still couldnt reconcile to the fact that we were this lost. How could we be. By now, I was very pissed. I was clearly responsible for this trek and because of my lack of homework and alertness, we were in trouble. Thats not all, my cell was conked off due to the rain. We couldnt contact our hosts since only I had the number. There was no transportation options visible for miles. Abhishek was hit by a bout of sinus, Prachi was tired. Mayank's knees were a mess. There was no option but to reach Meda and fetch our cars. Also the poor hosts had prepared fod for 7 hungry trekkers. That had to be done justice to. Pratik who had been struggling all through the descent, suddenly became the cheerleader of the group. He pumped us all and decided that himself, dhruwin and I would run (yes run) ahead toward Roha and try and get some transport back, while the rest 4 walked behind. We ran for about a km, again much the amusement of the villagers. Pratik kept stopping at intervals to do his 'how far is it' routine. Finally after some running, brisk walking, give up walking and plenty of timekeeping, we reached Roha. We would have walked about 30 minutes to reach Roha. The trailing group was about a km behind us. Once again it hit me that they only have my number and my cell has conked. My sparking brilliance had overshadowed all proceedings. So I waited at the intersection while Pratik and Dhruwin went ahead to fetch an auto or 2. By the time the trailing group caught up, we had found 2 autos.
All lingering doubts I had on our location were settled. As confirmed later, we had descended on the wrong side of the pass. We were thus in a village on the other side of the fort. We were miserably lost and 7 kms from Meda. I got into my apologetic mode but was quite surprised to see all folks extremely happy. The adventure of getting lost, crossing the river and finding out way had been much more fun than a simple descent. Finally at 5.30 pm we reached Meda and rushed to eat without even changing. The wonderful lady (Mrs Chandane) showed us some sympathy and again reminded us that we had not heeded her advise of taking a local. There is something about Prachi and village ladies. All of them start wanting to adopt her, teach her marathi and make her an ideal home maker. In the last trek, she had made Bhakri with the village lady. Here to she was in the kitchen discussing cost of living etc with her. Abhishek was clearly interested in the food alone.
Food timeI have always been biased towards village food, but that this food was phenomenal was a consensus. Dhruwin who is a vetran of 48 treks was most impressed. He has never eaten in the village. People had cribbed to me initially for arranging veg food, but I believe that was one (rare) wise decision I had made for the day. We had vatana sabzi, tandul roti, gehu roti, varan bhaat, salad and papad. The first time village eaters like Dhruwin and Mayank were stunned to contentment. The rest were just blissfully happy.
After the wonderful meal, we changed into dry clothes, had chai, thanked and paid our hosts profusely (as kudva said, screw the market) and set off. Driving was again a problem. Noone wanted Pratik to drive, as usual. Mayank gave up. Abhishek was looking dead (Sinus and then the subsequent medication). But he bravely decided to drive and I took the other car. All wet shoes n socks were packed into the boot and both car boots would have been smelling for days. While we avoided the rickety bridge on the way back, the pot holes on NH17 were tougher to miss. Night driving on this road after an exhausting trek is no walk in the park. But we managed. I gave up at Panvel and Pratik finally got to drive his car. On the way back, again we messed up as noone still had each others no. Inter car commmunication was a problem. Dhruwin kept us entertained by telling us more stories of his getting lost on treks. Finally it dawned to me that he was the reason and nothing else! We got home by 10 pm. It was an adventure I would not forget for a while. This blog will serve as a reminder when we converted a simple short trek into something memorable, albeit unintentionally.
Learnings for the day
1. Use your brains and do not keep your cell in your pocket during rains.
2. Most villages have a hexagonal lake and pointed temple
3. Dhruwin loves loosing the way, dont keep him in the front
4. Do not hoard on the groups mobile nos, share.
5. Even if its a simple trek, do your homework and stay alert.
6. If you take a right while going up, you must turn left when going down
6. Getting lost is awesome fun.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
a few new definitions
1. bottleneckomania (n): the uncanny ability of an otherwise not so bright mumbai driver to identify the narrowest part of the road to park his car in, thereby creating a beautiful bottleneck
2. hourglassophelia (n): the irritating habit of some jokers of destroying the beautiful work done above by parking their car bang opposite there by creating an hour glass tube
3. shibu sorened (v): what happens when ones best laid plans of checkmating family and taking a bigger role go so wrong that one has to also sacrifice their current posts
4. gadkari (v): the ability to act humble and bow down much lower than your girth can sustain in order to survive as the president of a fraction ridden party
5. Shijoitis (n): the ability to analyse the most trivial of topics and with a minimum 1000 word summary that can scare off the most patient reader
6. Bawagiri (n): the habit of publicizing every small event in life to make it appear as the days breaking news with the sole intention of grabbing footage
Alternate definition
Bawagiri (n): the irritating habit of nagging all and sundry into joining in on ones very ambitious weekend plans and giving them loads of grief on any response other than yes
2. hourglassophelia (n): the irritating habit of some jokers of destroying the beautiful work done above by parking their car bang opposite there by creating an hour glass tube
3. shibu sorened (v): what happens when ones best laid plans of checkmating family and taking a bigger role go so wrong that one has to also sacrifice their current posts
any resemblence to any current politician is genuine and purely intentional
5. Shijoitis (n): the ability to analyse the most trivial of topics and with a minimum 1000 word summary that can scare off the most patient reader
6. Bawagiri (n): the habit of publicizing every small event in life to make it appear as the days breaking news with the sole intention of grabbing footage
Alternate definition
Bawagiri (n): the irritating habit of nagging all and sundry into joining in on ones very ambitious weekend plans and giving them loads of grief on any response other than yes
Monday, May 24, 2010
The Glorious 90's
Recently, while on a drive cum trek, 3 of our gang of 4 were my age. I played my famous best off 90s CD and all three of us sang along. The 4th Guy (18 year old) was just bored. Got me thinking on weather everyone loves the decade they grow up in or is this restricted to us lucky few who got the chance to grow up in the wonderful 90s. Does everyone have difficulty letting go? Is one always biased bout his times being the best?
I personally am convinced that the 90's were the best years to grow up in. I realise the bias in my view. However, let me give you some objective evidence to support my claim. Do feel free to lambast, rip apart, reinforce etc, but in brief.
1. Economy:
After the gloom of the 80's, the 90's brought hope, the economy opened up... middle class had some money to spend. This was however restricted and the over exuberance of 2000's wasn't there. McDonald's was still a premium brand and a mall still aspirational. A Levis was something to be worn on your birthday and I still remember enjoying my first can of Pepsi for 30 minutes.
2. Television:
Doordarshan was at its programming best. Also, came the satellite television boom. Programming standards would have only improved since but then again there is too much clutter in the 2000's. Even average programs of that decade like 'Stone boy' remain etched in our memory. The legendary ones like Surabhi will always be revered. Indian private television media was born out of NDTV's 'World this Week. Election coverage saw a new revolution. There was average amount of good television compared to today's good amount of average television. We can even recollect the good commercials of the time. Ask someone to recall an ad from 2005 now.
3. Music:
Undoubtedly the shining star of the decade. 90's positively had the best music. After a very average 80's (how many 80s numbers do u hear on the radio in a month?) 90s got back with a bang. While 70s music is also in a class of its own, what strikes out in the 90s is also the variety. 1990 saw the debut of A R Rahman, of whom, I don't need to say much, except that his freshest n best work came in that decade.
After the false starts of the 80's, 90's also saw the the real start of the indi pop (Baba Sehegal ki jai) and indi rock thanks to MTV and the satellite television. There was finally a platform for the talented musicians who didn't want to do bollywood. Brilliant bands like Euphoria, Silk Route etc came to the fore apart from a large number of one-hit wonders. The Indian rocker got his opportunity (which has finally manifested into success in the next decade). We got a flavour of Pakistani music. English music was no longer restricted to MJ's Thriller. One negative aspect was the rise n rise of bhangda music. Anyone and everyone who knew Punjabi or had set foot in a London pub was suddenly trying to cut an album. Thankfully, only the talented survived.
4. Games:
Growing up in the 90s was the best of both worlds. Television had arrived and thrived but was not all pervasive. Play station did not exist and Attari was not as good. We had enough motivation to go out and play. There weren't enough parks and very few building had its own swimming pool and garden. It was find your own space and make your own game (I never learnt to hit the ball on the leg side and our compound had none). Education was not that cut throat. No day was complete without 2 hours playing down, even if it was the exam week. Kids today don't have the time or inclination to enjoy playing Lagoori, Sankali, Dabba I Spies, Chor police etc. These games built character like no play station ever could.
5. Movies:
Cant say that the best cinema was made in the 90's. That would be untrue. However, the decade did allow for some flexibility in main stream. Finally the hero could be flawed, the heroine could wear short clothes (thank you Urmila) and not every movie had a villain to be bashed up in the end. Yash Chopra took us all over Europe and Bollywood was suddenly big time into tourism. I would say that a lot of the variety seen in cinema of the 2000's came about due to the small risks taken in the 90's.
6. Fashion:
No one will dispute this point. After the Bell bottoms of the 70s and the tight white trousers n white shoes of the 80s, the 90s was a big relief. Except for a short craze for pyjamas and shiny leather pants, it was basic denims and floaters. I don't think a lot of us will look back at our childhood and teenage snaps and cringe like our seniors would. The fashion of the 2000s has thankfully not deviated far from this.
7.Literature Books
There certainly were no crosswords and landmark in the 90s. But there was a gr8 exchange market for Enid Blyton's, Hardy Boys and Archie comics. One just needed to buy 1 good book and then exchange it with 10 friends to read 10 more good ones.
All in all, the 90s were certainly the most interesting times to grow up in. Life was not all that tough but things were not always easily available. Hence, our generation grew up more aware, but more responsible.
I personally am convinced that the 90's were the best years to grow up in. I realise the bias in my view. However, let me give you some objective evidence to support my claim. Do feel free to lambast, rip apart, reinforce etc, but in brief.
1. Economy:
After the gloom of the 80's, the 90's brought hope, the economy opened up... middle class had some money to spend. This was however restricted and the over exuberance of 2000's wasn't there. McDonald's was still a premium brand and a mall still aspirational. A Levis was something to be worn on your birthday and I still remember enjoying my first can of Pepsi for 30 minutes.
2. Television:
Doordarshan was at its programming best. Also, came the satellite television boom. Programming standards would have only improved since but then again there is too much clutter in the 2000's. Even average programs of that decade like 'Stone boy' remain etched in our memory. The legendary ones like Surabhi will always be revered. Indian private television media was born out of NDTV's 'World this Week. Election coverage saw a new revolution. There was average amount of good television compared to today's good amount of average television. We can even recollect the good commercials of the time. Ask someone to recall an ad from 2005 now.
3. Music:
Undoubtedly the shining star of the decade. 90's positively had the best music. After a very average 80's (how many 80s numbers do u hear on the radio in a month?) 90s got back with a bang. While 70s music is also in a class of its own, what strikes out in the 90s is also the variety. 1990 saw the debut of A R Rahman, of whom, I don't need to say much, except that his freshest n best work came in that decade.
After the false starts of the 80's, 90's also saw the the real start of the indi pop (Baba Sehegal ki jai) and indi rock thanks to MTV and the satellite television. There was finally a platform for the talented musicians who didn't want to do bollywood. Brilliant bands like Euphoria, Silk Route etc came to the fore apart from a large number of one-hit wonders. The Indian rocker got his opportunity (which has finally manifested into success in the next decade). We got a flavour of Pakistani music. English music was no longer restricted to MJ's Thriller. One negative aspect was the rise n rise of bhangda music. Anyone and everyone who knew Punjabi or had set foot in a London pub was suddenly trying to cut an album. Thankfully, only the talented survived.
4. Games:
Growing up in the 90s was the best of both worlds. Television had arrived and thrived but was not all pervasive. Play station did not exist and Attari was not as good. We had enough motivation to go out and play. There weren't enough parks and very few building had its own swimming pool and garden. It was find your own space and make your own game (I never learnt to hit the ball on the leg side and our compound had none). Education was not that cut throat. No day was complete without 2 hours playing down, even if it was the exam week. Kids today don't have the time or inclination to enjoy playing Lagoori, Sankali, Dabba I Spies, Chor police etc. These games built character like no play station ever could.
5. Movies:
Cant say that the best cinema was made in the 90's. That would be untrue. However, the decade did allow for some flexibility in main stream. Finally the hero could be flawed, the heroine could wear short clothes (thank you Urmila) and not every movie had a villain to be bashed up in the end. Yash Chopra took us all over Europe and Bollywood was suddenly big time into tourism. I would say that a lot of the variety seen in cinema of the 2000's came about due to the small risks taken in the 90's.
6. Fashion:
No one will dispute this point. After the Bell bottoms of the 70s and the tight white trousers n white shoes of the 80s, the 90s was a big relief. Except for a short craze for pyjamas and shiny leather pants, it was basic denims and floaters. I don't think a lot of us will look back at our childhood and teenage snaps and cringe like our seniors would. The fashion of the 2000s has thankfully not deviated far from this.
7.
There certainly were no crosswords and landmark in the 90s. But there was a gr8 exchange market for Enid Blyton's, Hardy Boys and Archie comics. One just needed to buy 1 good book and then exchange it with 10 friends to read 10 more good ones.
All in all, the 90s were certainly the most interesting times to grow up in. Life was not all that tough but things were not always easily available. Hence, our generation grew up more aware, but more responsible.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Politics of Rabblerousing
1 day after local political parties fell over each other trying to establish their love for the state, some views that I have been thinking on. Let me pre-warn that these are my personal views and there may be factual gaps due to my limited research and knowledge. Also, one may choose to disagree, but it has to be done maturely. Please post comments, if you wish, but no long sermons.
9th March 2010, Raj Thackeray celebrates the 4th anniversary of MNS. Immediately after that, some party people go and throw stones at an Airtel Office. Their reason, some service that Airtel was not providing in a local language. Cut to March 2006, after touring some parts of the state, Raj Thackeray announces the founding of MNS. His first speech is quite a surprise. Anyone who has some awareness of his ways, was expecting a hard line agenda. However, he surprises all by talking of development and development only. I am discussing this with an office colleague and it seems to us that he was clearly trying to align to a more moderate line and target a larger segment of the youth, and honestly, as much as I was aware of lack of intention, I am heartened by the assessed approach. Ofcourse very few will remember this now.
So what changed - The first election results. Raj Thackeray realised that while his moderate stand and pro development agenda was getting him positive reviews, it stopped at that. He hardly got any votes and drew blanks in the first few elections the MNS stood in. Soon he changed course and by late 2007, the MNS had firmed up an anti migrant (specifically North Indian) agenda. Raj was clearly unapologetic on his views and more the English media castigated him, more it helped him in his positioning. Congress's tacit support helped. The 2009 assembly elections saw MNS beating the Sena in Mumbai and Nasik and clearly chipped away a huge chunk of the Sena vote. While some people may have been surprised by the quantum of their vote, not too many were surprised by the overall trend. Immediately the Sena went on an attack to protect its vote bank and since then the Marathi Manoos has had everyone falling over to please him. Thus, the over board approach to Maharashtra day yesterday.
So whats my point here. The above is just an example of what I have observed in Indian politics over a few analysis. To create a loyal vote bank out of zilch, one cannot take a slightly off center stand. One has to go hammer n tongs on an issue that matters deeply to a few to establish to them unequivocally that you are 100% committed to the same. The vote bank does not evaluate you objectively on your intentions (for example, Raj Thackeray's kids go to a high society cbse English medium school that still has Bombay in its name) but focuses more the decibel and destruction levels of your campaign. This is precisely where the English media has contributed to Raj Thackeray's growth. By giving him so much negative attention, they have helped him remain in the lime light and also won him more sympathy from those who are leaning to the Marathi manoos cause. I admire the man for his political acumen. He deliberately chose to give all interviews in Marathi in the run up to 2009 assembly. Moreover, he chose to allow the English media to take his case (most will remember the Rajdeep Sardesai interview), where possible ,to increase his vote banks loyalty. Congress was smart enough to not arrest him, they realised it would only make them the villain and help his cause a lot more than they wanted.
One has to be a Rahul Gandhi to be able to take a rationalist view on issues and gain positive votes for the stand. This will not dent the traditional vote base and will only add. Raj Thackeray may be capable taking the rationalist view, but he will not capture a vote bank for it. Politics of rabble rousing is an essential ingredient for any nascent political party to establish itself. One cannot take a moderate stand and survive. One has to identify a cause significant to a few. Moreover, stating ones support for a cause is not sufficient, one has to destroy public property and cause disruptions to be able to gain political mileage from the stand. TRS is an example here. Even if the BJP supports the Telangana cause for a few years now, it is only the TRS and its ways that help them gain votes on basis of their stand. Ditto will happen in case of Vidharbha, where again BJP is pro division. Expect a Vidharbha Rashtra Samiti or something similar to come up soon and start attacking public property and then end up with 5-10 MLAs in the assembly putting token protests once in a while!
So now that we have established the point, let us try and see why the politics of rabble rousing actually works. Few reasons that I have derived are
9th March 2010, Raj Thackeray celebrates the 4th anniversary of MNS. Immediately after that, some party people go and throw stones at an Airtel Office. Their reason, some service that Airtel was not providing in a local language. Cut to March 2006, after touring some parts of the state, Raj Thackeray announces the founding of MNS. His first speech is quite a surprise. Anyone who has some awareness of his ways, was expecting a hard line agenda. However, he surprises all by talking of development and development only. I am discussing this with an office colleague and it seems to us that he was clearly trying to align to a more moderate line and target a larger segment of the youth, and honestly, as much as I was aware of lack of intention, I am heartened by the assessed approach. Ofcourse very few will remember this now.
So what changed - The first election results. Raj Thackeray realised that while his moderate stand and pro development agenda was getting him positive reviews, it stopped at that. He hardly got any votes and drew blanks in the first few elections the MNS stood in. Soon he changed course and by late 2007, the MNS had firmed up an anti migrant (specifically North Indian) agenda. Raj was clearly unapologetic on his views and more the English media castigated him, more it helped him in his positioning. Congress's tacit support helped. The 2009 assembly elections saw MNS beating the Sena in Mumbai and Nasik and clearly chipped away a huge chunk of the Sena vote. While some people may have been surprised by the quantum of their vote, not too many were surprised by the overall trend. Immediately the Sena went on an attack to protect its vote bank and since then the Marathi Manoos has had everyone falling over to please him. Thus, the over board approach to Maharashtra day yesterday.
So whats my point here. The above is just an example of what I have observed in Indian politics over a few analysis. To create a loyal vote bank out of zilch, one cannot take a slightly off center stand. One has to go hammer n tongs on an issue that matters deeply to a few to establish to them unequivocally that you are 100% committed to the same. The vote bank does not evaluate you objectively on your intentions (for example, Raj Thackeray's kids go to a high society cbse English medium school that still has Bombay in its name) but focuses more the decibel and destruction levels of your campaign. This is precisely where the English media has contributed to Raj Thackeray's growth. By giving him so much negative attention, they have helped him remain in the lime light and also won him more sympathy from those who are leaning to the Marathi manoos cause. I admire the man for his political acumen. He deliberately chose to give all interviews in Marathi in the run up to 2009 assembly. Moreover, he chose to allow the English media to take his case (most will remember the Rajdeep Sardesai interview), where possible ,to increase his vote banks loyalty. Congress was smart enough to not arrest him, they realised it would only make them the villain and help his cause a lot more than they wanted.
One has to be a Rahul Gandhi to be able to take a rationalist view on issues and gain positive votes for the stand. This will not dent the traditional vote base and will only add. Raj Thackeray may be capable taking the rationalist view, but he will not capture a vote bank for it. Politics of rabble rousing is an essential ingredient for any nascent political party to establish itself. One cannot take a moderate stand and survive. One has to identify a cause significant to a few. Moreover, stating ones support for a cause is not sufficient, one has to destroy public property and cause disruptions to be able to gain political mileage from the stand. TRS is an example here. Even if the BJP supports the Telangana cause for a few years now, it is only the TRS and its ways that help them gain votes on basis of their stand. Ditto will happen in case of Vidharbha, where again BJP is pro division. Expect a Vidharbha Rashtra Samiti or something similar to come up soon and start attacking public property and then end up with 5-10 MLAs in the assembly putting token protests once in a while!
So now that we have established the point, let us try and see why the politics of rabble rousing actually works. Few reasons that I have derived are
- Development is a much maligned word. It is thrown around all the while by all and sundry. No voter believes a politician when he uses the D word. Only a Shiela Dixit and a Narendra Modi can get away with those for a while, that to after proving themselves over a few terms. No one is going to believe K Chandrashekar Rao or Raj Thackeray if they harp the development agenda.
- Attention spans of people are dwindling. No one remembers (or cares for) what you said 2 years ago. Its your current stand that matters and there to, its what you say that matters. Who cares weather you walk your talk or genuinely mean what is said.
- Bulk of the educated and thinking class (which may be a bit less susceptible to point 2 above) finds it below its dignity to vote (and I have every right to criticize here as i have not missed casting my vote in any election). Clearly a lot of us just want to do token lip service. And ofcourse, we are champions at externalising. So we will not vote since we don't find any candidate suitable. We will not bother that, our not voting, is leading to the political parties to put up candidates who will appeal to those, who will vote come what may! I have very strong views against my elitist friends from south Mumbai who went all bonkers after 26-11 coining slogans and joining facebook communities like 'Enough is Enough' but then skipped voting in the election 4 months later as it was too hot or the kids had their summer vacations (Colaba recorded a pathetic 40% turn out, hypocrites). So since majority of the rationalist do not vote, why bother targeting them.
- Media loves sensationalism. The smart politicians have realised this and are using the media to propagate their views. Cause some mayhem and suddenly you are on national news. Even Barkha Dutt (sic) wants to interview you and in conjunction to point 2 above, you have arrived in main stream.
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